The Power in Liberty

The world has become smaller as social media and the internet have changed the way people get information and knowledge, there remains a huge danger with the freedom to find out anything, at any time. In Genesis 2:8 we hear about two trees in particular being in the garden at the beginning of time. One was called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and the other was called “the tree of life”. God tells Adam and Eve in verse 16 not to eat from the one called “the knowledge of good and evil” or they would surely die. This is the first time where we see that there is something more to be desired than knowledge and that is LIFE.
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The enemy’s desire is to paint God as a distant, aloof being who wants our knowledge suppressed, our freedom diminished and our choices limited. But the enemy already had every good and perfect thing in the eons he served God and decided he wanted MORE than being beautiful, perfect and immortal. He wanted to be God Himself and He couldn’t. So until he is thrown in the lake of fire, he is allowed from time to time to test human hearts.

Our goal shouldn’t be to only know more information. We can know a lot of things which we have no capacity to do anything about. But the true reason Jesus came was to give man back the liberty and the freedom he had before the fall. Freedom doesn’t come from a knowledge of information, of knowing good and evil, of having many choices. Freedom comes when we have the knowledge of God who is LIFE! Many choices can lead to inaction. Too many options can make us crippled, not moving because we feel we need to research every detail. While we like the idea of options and choices, God gives us two: love and follow me and you will have life…or don’t and you will have death.

We don’t have freedom when we are paralyzed with options, most which we will not use anyway. Following after and obeying the Spirit gives us life! Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Here is a story to illustrate:

Three years ago on a rainy January morning I was driving my van to take things to Goodwill and had an accident, which ended up totaling my van, forcing me to get a new vehicle. When I prayed about it the only thought I had was: Call Rick (an old family friend) and buy his van which was for sale.  It was a nice van with only one owner. That was my option from the Lord. But I promptly decided to check all over the place for “other options” and spent hours, even days looking at vehicles and doing research on them. After three weeks of looking at dozens of vehicles and making many phone calls and visits and test drives, I was praying about getting one of the ones I was looking at as I didn’t feel “settled” about it.  The Lord said again, “Call Rick and get that van”. Then within 30 minutes my daughter-in-law comes over and says, “Hey have you called Rick? He is selling his van… “ I did and it was a great buy and great call!

Why didn’t I do it first time?
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Because doing what He says, the one good choice seems too simple many times. Life and liberty really are THAT simple!